98 PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY [ch. y. 
In Marisckal College he found himself in contact 
with young inquiring minds, to instruct and to guide 
which was henceforth to be the principal business 
of his life. He devoted himself to this work with 
all his energies, mental and physical, and with a 
warmth of sympathetic interest not always found 
in the occupants of professorial chairs. There was 
earnestness and reality in all his work — in his 
lectures, in his excursions into surrounding districts, 
with his students in search of zoological or botanical 
specimens, or for examination of geological pheno¬ 
mena. These excursions often involved long and 
fatiguing walks, but his youthful companions, 
inspired by his spirit, always felt that what they 
had gained in knowledge from discoveries made 
under his guidance, in instruction then received or 
illustrated, or in pleasure from his kindly and 
courteous companionship, much more than com¬ 
pensated for the fatigues undergone. 
MacGillivray brought new life into his chair, 
while the specially interesting nature of his lectures 
and the attractiveness of his personality drew to 
his classes many students, whose curriculum did 
not include the subjects of his teaching. Even 
brother professors, unable to resist his magnetic 
influence, were not unfrequently seen on the 
benches in front of him. The late Professor 
Blackie, then occupant of the Humanity Chair in 
Marischal College, actually enrolled himself as one 
of his students! 
An example of MacGillivray’s special aptitude 
